My 8x10 came with me to work yesterday to go for a shoot at lunchtime. It is quite a thing to be shooting on such large ground glass. I can only imagine how the ULF guys feel with their cameras! Hopefully will put the sheet through the trays this evening and see how I got on but, Walter, you definitely need to take that camera out!

An odd story - Do you have a 10x8" enlarger? - Have you tried contact printing?

However, real discussion on this topic would be best over a good Cognac, as it feels to me the Sinar 10x8" has become an obstacle that you need to talk through - If my feeling is right perhaps put the 10x8" away until you are working on something and suddenly need the tonal smoothness and luminosity that a big neg confers to a print or you want the quality of a contact print - Then bring out the beast and learn to love it

A secondary thought is that using the Sinar in the landscape could be cheaper than signing on to a gym' contract

Note - It appears that most of you are using 10x8" as a hobby - I only take by 10x8" cameras out if they are going to earn our keep for images likely to sell in silver jelly prints larger than 24x30", which is as far as I like to take 5x4" - 10x8" will go up to 36x45" - However, print sales these sizes are rare due to the cost of making them, but one in an exhibition can generate interest which feeds the sale of smaller size prints - Big digisquirtprints can be made from any neg or digifile size as they do not have the presence of silver jelly so image quality does not matter

PS - I have looked at your "camera porn" and note the saggy bellows - This is cured by a bit of old stick rested on top of the two standards with a bit of baler twine used to tie the bellows upwards so there is no image cut off at the bottom (yes, bottom)

John Austin wrote:An odd story - Do you have a 10x8" enlarger? - Have you tried contact printing?....John

A very valid question and comment.

The 8x10 format gives productive access to silver and non-silver techniques via contact exposure. And those contacts are big enough to have presence and power when held in the hand and looked at. 4x5 and 5x7 are just too small and 11x14 requires a camera so big that it will eventually kill you. Both Paul Strand and Brett Weston "upgraded" to 11x14 early in their careers but gave it up not too long after because the burden was just too great.

I've settled on 8x10 as my principle format because it is the biggest I can traverse landscape with and still deliver those delicious detailed photographs. I do have an 8x10 enlarger (Durst 184) but every photograph from an 8x10 negative that has ever gone to a collector has been a contact. Maybe there is an elitist vanity in having photographs that are not enlargements. I won't argue if they're buying.

I've taken my 8x10 camera out finally and while it is significantly heavier than my 4x5 cameras, it's not an impossible thing to lug around. I must say that composing an image on that huge ground glass is well worth the effort. When I'm ducking under the focus cloth and the ground glass fills my peripheral vision, it is utterly stunning and it feels like I'm watching a movie.

My plan is to pick up some sheets of paper and do some contact prints this week. I'm quite excited by the prospect of doing so! I've actually not been quite so excited by photography in quite some time, particularly so since I started shooting large format a year or so ago.